Having Fun With Paper, Ink, and Stamps

Category Archives: Birthday

If you want to make a quick and easy birthday card, use the Birthday Memories Designer Series Paper and the Happy Birthday Thinlits Die! I LOVE this die! It is just perfect to put on so many birthday cards.

The card base is Real Red to match the Happy Birthday diecut. Actually I had already cut out this red diecut for another card, but it didn’t look right on that card so I just saved it. To make this card, I looked through the Birthday Memories Designer Paper and picked out this plainer background for this card. Real Red is one of the coordinating colors of this designer paper so it was perfect to use this diecut in red.

For something else on the card front, quick and easy, I decided to cut out one of the birthday cakes from one of the patterns in the Birthday Memories package. I just cut it out by hand, only took a few seconds, and adhered it to the card front with the Multipurpose Liquid Glue.

You have a few options for gluing down the Happy Birthday diecut. This time I just put tiny dots of the Multipurpose Liquid Glue all around on the back. Very tiny. I could have also sponged on some of the glue. Or I could have used the Multipurpose Adhesive Sheets if I would have stuck one onto the back of the cardstock before I diecut it!

If you would like to see the Happy Birthday diecut on another card, there is THIS POST with one of my favorite cards ever because of the beautiful background paper!

That is all there is to this card! Simply make the card base, adhere a plainer piece of designer paper, adhere the Happy Birthday Diecut, and cut out a birthday cake, or maybe some other image from the Birthday Memories Paper. There you have a quick and easy birthday card with the Birthday Memories Paper!

This is a birthday card I made for my niece with the Birthday Memories Paper, and I loved it when it was finished! Sometimes you make a card or project and it’s fine, and sometimes you make a card or project and you really like it! And this is just a simple card! Anyone can make it!

The interesting part of this card is that part of the front of the card is cut off so that you get a peek at the inside. It’s kind of like a z-fold card without the fold! It’s just half a card front! The greeting is fairly large to decorate the front, partly, but it also hides the greeting that you might stamp on the inside of the card. And then I used cut out images from the Birthday Memories Designer Series Paperto decorate both the front of the card and the inside.

You do have to think about the size of the greeting on the front and where to place the greeting on the inside so that the greeting inside doesn’t show. You might need to make a light pencil mark or use a sticky note to help with placement, whatever works.

Click HEREto see a very similar card with a z-fold using this Birthday Memories Designer Series Paper.

This designer paper is one of the many selections on the Buy 3 Get 1 Free Designer Series Paper Sale. Be sure to check out the choices and stock up! There are a couple of papers priced at $10.00, most at $11.00, and one at $13.00. When you order, put in the least expensive 3 papers first so that when you enter the 4th one, which will be free, it will be the more expensive one. If you have any questions, just let me know.

Stock up on all the paper you want, but don’t just hoard it…….use it! Make a batch of cards like this Birthday Memories Birthday Card and mail them out to your friends!

I love this Birthday Memories Designer Series Paper and the whole Birthday Memories Suiteof products in the Annual Stampin’ Up! Catalog, so I thought I would make this card for a friend’s birthday. It was a “big” birthday for her and I debated what kind of special card to make for her. I just thought she would like this “vintage” look kind of card.

The card base is the new Powder Pink Cardstock, randomly stamped with the little bouquet in the Birthday Delivery Photopolymer Stamp Setwith the same color ink. This gives a little bit of interest in the background without taking away from the focal point. I used a piece of Powder Pink 1/2″ Finely Woven Ribbon wrapped around the card.

The cute little girl is die cut from the Birthday Memories Paper with one of the Birthday Friends Framelits Dies that fits the girl! Also, the red polka dot package is die cut! The other little package I just cut out by hand with my Paper Snips. Something new that we can use the framelits to die cut images on the designer paper! And very handy!

I also stamped the envelope with a birthday cake in Powder Pink. Stampin’ Up! has the best envelopes! Try the Whisper White Medium Envelopes! Once you do, you’ll never go back to ordinary envelopes for your precious cards! I can identify them by feel if I get a Stampin’ Up! envelope in the mail!!

And here is a glimpse of the inside of the card!

I just die cut another character on the designer paper and adhered him inside the card on a piece of Whisper White! So fun! I wrote a note to my friend saying we weren’t getting older, just “nostalgic”! I knew she would enjoy the “vintage” characters!

Take a look at the Birthday Memories Suite in the Annual Stampin’ Up! Catalog and see if you can resist ordering it for making some fun cards and projects!

I was so lucky to receive this handmade birthday gift box and card from my friend Jan recently! Such a happy thing to see after opening the mailing box! So many gifts now are given in gift bags, which are fine, so it was an extra treat to see a package to “open”! And of course my friend made it herself plus the card! So pretty! She makes such beautiful cards and things!

The box is made with the pretty Sycamore Street Designer Series Paper from Sale-A-Bration several years ago. There are lots of instructions online of how to make a box out of paper, very simple. You can find directions to a box I made recently in THIS POST.

The birthday card she made me is made with the stamps, dies, and stickers in the Eastern Palace Suite.This suite was released the month before the new Stampin’ Up! Catalog came out, but of course it is still available now. You can make very pretty cards and projects with this group of products, and the stickers are such high quality and fun to use.

We made it through Hurricane Harvey just fine last evening and overnight. We’ve gotten almost 5″ of rain at our house in our rain gauge. It’s just the outer bands of rain from the hurricane, not anything like the people close to the eye had. So it might rain lightly or more heavily for a few minutes and then let up. No heavy wind, maybe some light wind gusts, like we had last night when we tried to go for a walk after dinner and misjudged the radar! There was a tornado that struck at 1:00 am several miles from here in a very nice neighborhood with lots of young families, about fifty homes damaged. The pictures on TV look pretty horrible but I’ve heard only one minor injury. They say these tornadoes drop down quickly and go back up quickly, but this one looks like it was pretty strong. As long as these bands of rain keep moving through and don’t stop over one location they think things will be much better. Every break in the rainfall gives the water time to drain. Still a mess and the storm can do whatever it wants, no matter the weather predictions, so who knows! Our power just blipped off for a second last night but we are very lucky at this moment to still have power, internet and air-conditioning!

Here is a screenshot of the radar on my phone at 9:00 am today, Saturday Aug. 26. I’m the blue dot!

That’s the hurricane update for now! Keep your fingers crossed for us! The worst is yet to come I think for our location and the city of Houston.

Wouldn’t you love to receive a beautiful handmade gift box and card like my friend sent me? Make one for your friend and send it! It really only takes a little bit of time to make something like this and you know it will be very much appreciated! Love it, Jan! And the gifts inside! Guess I should say……if you are curious….she sent me a cute candle in a little bottle with a birthday cake scent and a cute boxes of matches – which we may have to put to use this week!! – and a cute little Halloween decoration because she knows I love Halloween!

Don’t forget to use your Bonus Coupons before August ends!!

Enjoy your weekend if you’re not in Hurricane Harvey’s path!

Making a Z-Fold Card for a birthday is easy and with the Birthday Memories Designer Series Paper, your card will be so cute and fun! Z-Fold cards give an added dimension to cardmaking and thereby make you look like such an expert and professional! And yet, if they only knew, it is SO EASY!

To make the Z-Fold card base, just make a regular card. Then fold the front of the card base back on itself in half! In other words, score the front of the 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ card front at 2 1/8″ (in the middle of the 4 1/4″ card front) and fold the right side backwards toward the card fold. This is easy to see on the photo above. You can add whatever designer pieces of paper, if you want, to decorate the panels.

As you design the front square or rectangle which is the focal point of the card, consider what size the greeting on the inside of the card will be. You will want that focal point to cover the greeting when the card is closed. Once I decided on the size I wanted that focal panel to be and cut the pieces, I closed the card with the focal piece on top and lightly penciled in the outline of it on the Whisper White layer that was going to be inside the card so that I could see where I had to stamp my greeting inside the card.

As you can see, I used the Birthday Memories Designer Series Paper, which is such a happy and whimsical collection of papers. I don’t think we have had anything quite like it in the past. I just love it! The Birthday Delivery Photopolymer Stamp Set coordinates with the paper, and that is what I used to stamp the greeting on the fox’s banner and on the inside of the card. The other amazing product is the Birthday Friends Framelits Dies. These dies not only cut some of the stamped images, but also some of the images in the Birthday Memories Designer Series Paper.

Want to make a quick and easy birthday card? Then reach for the Birthday Memories red print in the designer paper package and make a card like this one! I love the color red, and I thought this card might be a different one than a person would expect using this designer paper and stamp set. Just a quick and easy, simple birthday card to make in a couple of minutes!

Start with a card base of Real Red Cardstock. Layer with Whisper White with just a thin border to help the Real Red patterned paper stand out against the red card base. The Birthday Memories Designer Series Paperhas so many pretty papers in it, although most are colorful and filled with child-like or vintage type images. But this plainer red paper caught my eye and I thought I would make more of a monochromatic card with no much fuss so the paper can stand out on its own.

Order this amazing suite of products, the Birthday Memories Suite . Save 10% by ordering the Birthday Delivery Photopolymer Bundle which includes the stamp set and framelit dies. Add on the Birthday Memories Designer Series Paper and you are good to go! Add any of the extra embellishments if you like.

Remember to use your Bonus Coupons that you earned in July before the end of August! They will expire August 31.

Check out the Stampin’ Up! Clearance Rack as new items were added yesterday, although many sold out right away, but there is still a selection and you might find good things to go along with the upcoming Holiday Catalog!

Isn’t this Birthday Mini Treat Bag With the Birthday Memories Die Cuts such a cute way to send your Happy Birthday wishes to someone? I have always loved making these mini treat bags and putting a card inside. But now that we have the new designer paper and stamp set in the catalog that I used here, we can do many more fun things with the treat bag!

Did you see the Birthday Memories Designer Series Paper in the new Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog? It is so fun and cute and almost a little vintage looking! Perfect for young children but really for anyone! I don’t know who wouldn’t smile upon receiving a card made with pieces of this paper. The only problem with the paper is that you will hate to cut into and use it!

You’ll be able to use this Birthday Memories Designer Paper and Birthday Delivery Stamp Set for more occasions that just birthdays. It will be cute for party favors, invitations, and many other projects!

This is what the inserted card looks like. I stamped the balloons and die cut with one of the framelit dies in the set. I purposely made them stick up at the top off the card a little bit so when it is inside the card, you will see the edge of the balloons and know to pull out the card. You can see how you could easily make this into a birthday party invitation or some other congratulatory occasion.

And let’s not forget to mention the Mini Treat Bag Thinlits Dies! These have been in the catalog before and I have so much fun with them! To make the bag, there are two dies, one cuts the front of the bag and part of the back. The other die cuts the other half of the back portion plus the fold that adheres to the front of the bag. It’s so simple, plus the die set comes with so many other fun pieces. I chose to make this mini treat bag simple by just adhering the die cuts from the Birthday Memories Paper on the front. I could have done lots more embellishing, but I thought this was cute enough as is! There are even other options to make besides a basic gift bag, such as I made in THIS POST.

Be sure to check out the Birthday Memories Suite in the catalog. You can order the Bundle and Designer Paper plus any other embellishments that you want so that you can make some fun cards and projects like this Birthday Mini Treat Bag With Birthday Memories Die Cuts.

Today is MY birthday, but I have a friend who has a birthday tomorrow (and I don’t think she looks at my blog!) so this is the card I made for her! I was glancing through some cards I had made recently, and I LOVED a card I made with the Happy Birthday Thinlits Dieand a watercolor background and I LOVED a card I made with this same Whole Lot of Lovely Designer Series Paper. So I just combined the two ideas!

The card is made with Basic Black Cardstock so you do need to put a piece of Whisper White Cardstock inside so you can stamp or write a greeting or note. I glued a strip of this designer paper to the side of the Whisper White inside the card so I could decorate the inside a little bit. There is a layer of Powder Pink underneath the Whole Lot of Lovely DSP.

I think the new Powder Pink 1/2″ Finely Woven Ribbonis just beautiful with this designer paper pattern and the card! So soft and such a pretty pink! I wrapped the strip of ribbon around the layer before adhering to the card. Then I tied the bow separately with another piece of ribbon and attached it to that strip of ribbon with a few Mini Glue Dots. Sometimes that is easier than trying to tie a perfect bow with the whole piece of ribbon around the card!

Since today is my birthday, I’m giving YOU the gift! I’m celebrating all weekend (why not?!) so if you place a Stampin’ Up! order of $25.00 or more (before tax and shipping, of course!), I will send YOU a little grab bag of “stuff”! And who doesn’t need more “stuff”?! Some might be new, some might be retired, but it will be a surprise! Order today through Sunday, August 13, 2017 at midnight.

After a trip to the West Coast to visit our faraway kids, it’s time to get back to stamping and blogging! Why not start with stamping an Easy Icing on the Cake Birthday Card? This card is all stamping, nothing else! Sometimes it is good to just stamp, as I also said in THIS POST.

I actually won this stamp set as a prize in an online event I was participating in! How fun is that?! I think the Icing on the Cake Stamp Set is one that could be overlooked, but is actually a fun one to use for birthdays and other occasions.

When you get back from vacation, and need a little inspiration to get back into stamping, be sure to remember to consult the Stampin’ Up! Catalog! That’s what all those sample projects inside are for! Use them! I opened my catalog and in just a second I came upon page 79 where I found the Icing on the Cake Stamp Set and was inspired to make a card almost exactly like the sample. I think the sample might have used aNote Card for the card base as it looks a little bit smaller, but I made mine the regular card size 5 1/2″ x 4 1/4″. I chose Powder Pink for the card base and Whisper White for the top layer with the stamping. I was planning to change the colors from the sample, so I looked on the chart provided by Stampin’ Up! with 2017 InColor Combinations for ideas. I suggest you print out this chart on Whisper White cardstock and keep it handy for reference! I decided to stamp with Powder Pink, Soft Sky, and So Saffron. I considered making the card with just one color ink, Powder Pink, a monochromatic card. Maybe I will try that next time! I think it would also be fun to stamp the “Happy” and “Birthday” on another scrap of paper and cut out each word in a rectangle to fit in the space and have the words popped up on Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Warning: This stamp set will make you hungry for cake and icing! Stamping pretty rows of colored frosting just looks yummy!

Here’s a fun way of using paper scraps on a birthday card! The other day I cut into my Color Theory Designer Series Paper Stackand as scraps, I had these very narrow little scraps. They were at least several inches long. Normally, I would throw those small scraps away (yes, I would!) but being as this was brand new designer series paper from the new Stampin’ Up! Catalog, I hated to do that! But I couldn’t just leave the scraps laying around, so I decided to find a way to use them on a card. You can see another example on THIS POST.

This card was a little more complicated. I actually covered the front of the top card layer of Whisper White with all the little scraps. I laid them out in offset lines so it wouldn’t all be lined up perfectly. Some scraps I put down lower and some higher, which then necessitated cutting some strips of paper shorter to fit in the empty spaces. Instead of measuring and guessing how long to make the shorter strips to fit, just glue them on in the empty space and trim them off later along the edge of the Whisper White. Obviously you don’t want to adhere this layer to the card front until you have all the strips glued down. Mine is off a tiny bit in a spot or two. Perhaps you can cover yours, if that happens, with a greeting or some other embellishment.

Another thing you could do with this card is after you have all the strips applied to the card front, you could run it through the Big Shot inside an embossing folder, which would give it a quilt-like look! Try it and see!

Just have fun stamping and experimenting and see what you come up with! You don’t have to save all your paper scraps, but you might want to experiment with some once in awhile and see what unique creation you come up with. I’ve given you a way to use paper scraps on a birthday card, now it is your turn!

If you need a quick and easy happy birthday card to make, this is it! You do need a Big Shot Die-Cutting Machine. If you don’t own one, I’d highly recommend treating yourself to one. I’ve had mine since Stampin’ Up! started carrying them and use it practically everyday. It can do so much work and all you have to do is crank the handle!

For this card, I just used a Whisper White Cardstock base and a Whisper White layer. I think it gives a nice, elegant look! I embossed the white layer with the Oh My Stars Embossing Folder, a new folder in the new Stampin’ Up! Catalog. The “Happy Birthday” is die cut with the Happy Birthday Thinlits Die. It’s so simple to just have one die cut on the card but has such a fun impact! I used a piece of the Delightful Daisy Designer Series Paper.You could also just used a piece of cardstock.

Now if you don’t own a Big Shot, the next best thing would be the Stylized Birthday Stamp. It’s a single wood-mount stamp and quite cute for stamping a birthday greeting.

There are so many quick and easy way to make a birthday card, whether you own a Big Shot and accessories or just stamps, ink, and paper. Make those cards and mail them out! Real mail, real birthday cards, real cards to say I’m thinking of you can make a bigger impact on a person than you might imagine!

Here is a birthday card I made with the new Happy Birthday Gorgeous Photopolymer Stamp Set. The card base is one of the new In Colors, Berry Burst, and the layered designer paper is from the Fresh Florals Designer Series Paper Stack. This paper is copied from the popular Floral Boutique Designer Series Paper from the previous catalog, but in the In Colors. It’s beautiful!

The Happy Birthday greeting is stamped on a piece of Whisper White with Berry Burst ink and die cut with the Stitched Shapes Framelits Die. The little stamped flowers are also in that stamp set. Then this circle is layered on a pretty Delicate White Doily. After adhering that to the front of the card, I couldn’t resist adding one of the new Glitter Enamel Dots. You for sure will want at least one package of these in your stash, although they were so popular with Demonstrators that they are backordered but more are on the way early next week! Get some while you can in case they go on backorder again.

There are so many ways to use the Owl Punch by Stampin’ Up! and for those reasons I really hate to see the Owl Punch on the Retiring Products list. In looking back, I see that it has been around for many years, but the punch is so versatile I cannot believe that we will not have it available soon. If you do not already own the Owl Punch, I would urge you to grab one before they are gone. I’m sure most serious stampers already have one, but if you are new, you may not be famiiar with all the creativity this one punch affords.

The baby card I have posted above has been one of my most popular cards! All I did was punch out the portion on the Owl Builder Punch that would be the chest area of the owl. Yes, you can make baby clothes out of this piece of the Owl Punch! Click the link or the card photo above to go to the blog post for more information.

Here’s an anniversary card I made using the Owl Punch to make a couple of loving owls in silhouette! And I can’t tell you how many times I have punched those little hearts to use on various cards and projects!

The Owl Punch can also be used to make monsters for a birthday card! Just add some arms and scary faces! Click the link or the photo to go to my blog post for details.

If you have made a great project with the Owl Punch, click the “Leave a Reply” button at the top of this post and leave a comment! I’d love to hear!

These are just a few examples of ways to use the retiring Owl Builder Punch, and I can’t begin to tell you about all the creative ideas I have seen out there using the Owl Punch. Do a search online and you will find them. If you are so inspired, be sure to purchase the Owl Punch on the Retiring List before it goes away May 31.

This is an easy birthday card to make with a big die cut greeting on the front. One of the new products in the upcoming Stampin’ Up! Catalog is the Happy Birthday Thinlit that die cuts “Happy Birthday” all in one piece. The designer paper is the reverse side of the paper I put on the card I made yesterday in this post. That’s all there is to this card! So easy!

The card base is made with Pool Party cardstock, one of the coordinating colors with the Delightful Daisy Designer Series Paper. I used this beautiful floral print for a layer on the card. The greeting is die cut from Calypso Coral cardstock, but I felt like it needed some kind of layer behind it. I started with a piece of Whisper White cardstock, but that didn’t seem to be enough. Then I cut a larger layer of Calypso Coral to go behind it. Usually I don’t like the off-kelter style of layering, but somehow the layers turned out this way on this card and I liked it! Or at least I thought it was fine for this card! That helped the die cut stand out from the busy print background without taking away from the beautiful paper. Like I said yesterday, just keep playing with your card or project if you aren’t satisfied with it, and when you get it, you will know it!

This card could probably be further embellished in many ways, but I decided to keep it super simple and easy because we often need a birthday card in a hurry. This one would be perfect to make under those circumstances, although it would be better to have already made up in your stash! This Happy Birthday Thinlit Die was one I had seen online and thought was very cute in the samples, so I was happy it was on the preorder list for Demonstrators and was one of the first new products I wanted to use!

When the new catalog ordering begins June 1st, check out this Happy Birthday Thinlit Die (143700) so you, too, can make some quick and easy birthday cards!

You might be doing some shopping this weekend, so here is how to recycle your shopping bag and make a Birthday Gift Bag. We often have these plain kraft bags in our stash at home, so use them to make nice gift bags and save a trip to the store to buy one! Even if the store name is printed on the bag, it can often be covered up with cardstock and the recipient will never know!

To decorate this small shopping bag, I used some Stampin’ Up! retiring products. The Warmth & Cheer Designer Series Paper Stack is on sale for only $4.00. I started with wanting to use that paper. One side of each sheet is more Christmas-y, but the other side is absolutely non-holiday. There are plaids and stars that you can use for lots of other occasions and would be useful making masculine cards.

Once I chose the star pattern to use, I picked the coordinating color Delightful Dijon Cardstock on which to layer the 6″ x 6″ piece. Since stars are great for lots of occasions like birthdays, graduations, patriotic holidays, congratulations and more, I decided to make some stars with the Stars Framelits Dies (on sale!) If you place one star framelit die inside another you can make the outline stars – and then you still have the center star that you cut out! For the stars, I also used some more of the Warmth & Cheer Paper Stack as well as some Gold Glimmer Paper.Why not have some sparkle on a birthday gift bag??! The greeting is stamped in Garden Green Ink with a stamp in the Big On Birthdays Photopolymer Stamp Set.